Tag Archives: Italy

59.395 LIVES

Since September 2015 until August 2018, we have managed to save each and every one of these people, giving them a chance to reach dry land after embarking on one of the most dangerous voyages of their lives at sea.

Christmas 2009 The ”White Christmas” operation in Coccaglio, aiming the expulsion of all ”illegals” out of the town, is not only a sign of utter racism and xenophobia, it also reveals the inhuman Italian asylumpolicy, which has hardened this year Therefore it is of great importance to undertake action against as well the White Christmas operation as Italian asylumpolicy in general

CHRISTMAS 2009
WHITE CHRISTMAS OPERATION IN COCCAGLIO”AND SHE GAVE BIRTH TO HER FIRSTBORN, A SON.
SHE WRAPPED HIM IN CLOTHS AND PLACED HIM IN A MANGER, BECAUSE THERE WAS NO PLACE FOR THEM IN THE INN”

Dear Editor and Readers,

On this Night before Christmas I travel with you through some Moments in the history of men, kept in a dusty archive.

CASE 1

YEAR ZERO
BIRTH IN BETHLEHEM
NO PLACE IN THE INN

A poor and hungry couple arrives in Bethlehem, where they had to go on order of the Roman occupier because of a people’s registration
The young woman is pregnant of her first child and has recently survived a heavy travel with a donkey, on paths of stones.
It is impossible to rest, because all inns are already filled with other people, coming for that registration
They don’t have any money to rent a room elsewhere
Out of pity, because the time of the woman has come, a friendly innkeeper gives them permission to sleep in the manger
The same night she gives birth to her first Son.
She calls Him Jesus [Joshua in Hebrew]

CASE 2

2001 YEARS LATER
BIRTH IN THE VICINITY OF BETHLEHEM, 2001
TRAGEDY

A Palestinian family arrives at an Israeli military checkpoint [1] at al Walaja village, near Bethlehem
They are not Joseph and Mary, but Nasser and Fatima.
They try to reach the hospital in Bethlehem, but soldiers at military checkpoints twice refuse to allow them to pass, saying that Fatima’s condition was not critical.
After trying for about one hour to pass the checkpoints, Fatima gives birth to a son, in their car.
At al Walaja, near Bethlehem
She calls him Walid

But there are medical complications
Fatima is only seven months pregnant, when the baby is born.
As a premature baby, Walid requires urgent medical treatment.
The family reaches the hospital in Bethlehem one and a half hours after he was born, but the weight and temperature of the baby are too low.
He didn’t survive
He died that afternoon [2]

CASE 3
DECEMBER, 24 2009
COCCAGLIO

A knock on the door [3]
It’s a day before Christmas
Police officials call at the home of a refugee family in Coccaglio, asking them for their residence papers.
As they learn, that the residence papers have expired, the family is asked to leave the house and the town.
Christmas Eve they leave town, towards an insecure future.

Frontex is the European border agency, founded in 2004 and operational since 2005. The agency has their seat in Warsaw, Poland, from where it directs its activities. Although it is often believed, Frontex is not an actual border police, with a staff in uniform and with the task to actually police the borders of the EU. Rather, Frontex is a coordinating mechanism of the European Union organizing the cooperation of the border police bodies of the member states of the EU. In this respect, Frontex is like a meta border police: it is both above and behind the everyday practices of border guards.